Author: Mike Cordingley

Cycled over to Ashton on Mersey for a spot of canvassing in one of our targeted wards. Getting to know Ashton on Mersey a bit better these days. I have a long relationship with the town without regularly visiting it. As a kid I looked out over a playing field at the side of the then ‘new’ motorway. Beyond that was the River Mersey and beyond that, Ashton. There was no bridge, so Ashton was very much out of reach in those days.

Ashton lay on the Cheshire bank of the Mersey. The River Mersey has long been a border river, once the border between Mercia and Northumbria and for a millenium the border of Cheshire. I’ve always been proud to be a Lancastrian and whilst we were cycling on different routes to Cheshire places like Lymm and Manchester Airport as quite young kids, I’ve never lost that attachment to Ashton as the border town that you could see but couldn’t get to.

I’m quite proud to be a ‘Manc’ as well as Lancastrian and the two identities have never been odds with each other. The fact that Lancashire County Cricket Club is head-quartered in our patch of M32, only has meaning in the context of that Lancastrian identity and I think it’s something to keep hold of. Political administrative boundaries come and go, wards are redrawn, combined authorities created and abandoned, even northern powerhouses. But there seems something reassuringly permanent about the old counties even if they have no governance function. It’s probably the solidity of the geographical boundaries that reinforces but it also feels that there’s something important to our identity that is often missed or even dismissed.

I celebrate the fact that people self identify with the historic counties in their addresses whether it be Bolton, Lancs or Sale, Cheshire. I would love to see more more county boundary signs nationally but particularly within Trafford. Some of this is irrational, some might say absurd, but our multiple identities matter and have value, let’s keep those county lines.

British Counties Campaign website

You may have seen media praise for Altrincham’s regeneration recently, such as this article in the online local government journal Local Gov. It’s a worthwhile read. In many ways the Partington transformation has been even more impressive despite its much smaller size.

Altrincham has benefited from a focus on the assets within the town centre and recognition as to the extent of its catchment. Similarly Partington town centre now has an impressive 100% occupancy rate. These two Trafford towns may be polar opposites in affluence but there are similarities in how their town centres function.

The article praises Altrincham’s introduction of narrower carriageways and more street crossings to slow traffic. A thing I love about Partington’s centre is that despite generous car parking, it feels that it’s just as accessible on foot or by bike. Given it’s in the middle of a residential area, that makes perfect business sense. Altrincham needs people to come in via public transport and on foot to sustain its thriving evening leisure economy. As a consequence, I never feel that it’s unexpected to travel in on modes other than the car to shop in these centres. There’s street furniture and connecting pathways/bikeways to avoid the traffic. And whilst it may be that most of the custom to these two towns is reliant on the car, my mental image of them is of people in the street talking to each other.

That last point is important. It’s not just about the variety of retail, you’ve got to get the customer into town in the first place. I suspect that we’re psychologically conditioned to expect to see certain things as we enter a town centre and by quite a young age we know when we’re in a town centre, even if we’ve never been there before. The characteristics we’re so clued into probably include shop fronts and people, movement and bustle.

I am convinced we want to see shop-fronts and people on foot even if we come in by car. It’s psychological confirmation that it’s a town centre we’re in.